L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions

In this article I wish to analyze the conundrums arising when battered women's words meet institutions and law. In the context of intimate partner violence documentary evidence is often not available and women’s testimonies play an essential role. Pressing charges and speaking out means taking...

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Main Author: Alessandra Gribaldo
Format: Article
Language:Italian
Published: Dipartimento Culture e Società - Università di Palermo 2020-06-01
Series:Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/aam/2883
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author Alessandra Gribaldo
author_facet Alessandra Gribaldo
author_sort Alessandra Gribaldo
collection DOAJ
description In this article I wish to analyze the conundrums arising when battered women's words meet institutions and law. In the context of intimate partner violence documentary evidence is often not available and women’s testimonies play an essential role. Pressing charges and speaking out means taking the floor as a legal subject in order to demand justice and to speak in legal terms has a decisive, effective and symbolic value in the definition of victimhood. Nonetheless the pressure on the victim to speak about the factual events, about herself and her relationship with the perpetrator and to denounce him before the law has vast implications. Drawing on a research carried out in Italy, I reflect on how violence in intimate relationships can be made present to the institutions and how the abused subject is constituted in front of them. Self-governance and reflexivity make testimony intelligible and legally significant and make women reliable victims. Yet paradoxically violence exerted in an intimate relationship does not easily provide for such a perfect victim: this reliable subject that institutions require does not match women's experiences, stances, decisions, hesitations.
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spelling doaj-art-13785994be114a0a906b9dcf87c6960d2025-01-30T14:21:16ZitaDipartimento Culture e Società - Università di PalermoArchivio Antropologico Mediterraneo2038-32152020-06-01232210.4000/aam.2883L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutionsAlessandra GribaldoIn this article I wish to analyze the conundrums arising when battered women's words meet institutions and law. In the context of intimate partner violence documentary evidence is often not available and women’s testimonies play an essential role. Pressing charges and speaking out means taking the floor as a legal subject in order to demand justice and to speak in legal terms has a decisive, effective and symbolic value in the definition of victimhood. Nonetheless the pressure on the victim to speak about the factual events, about herself and her relationship with the perpetrator and to denounce him before the law has vast implications. Drawing on a research carried out in Italy, I reflect on how violence in intimate relationships can be made present to the institutions and how the abused subject is constituted in front of them. Self-governance and reflexivity make testimony intelligible and legally significant and make women reliable victims. Yet paradoxically violence exerted in an intimate relationship does not easily provide for such a perfect victim: this reliable subject that institutions require does not match women's experiences, stances, decisions, hesitations.https://journals.openedition.org/aam/2883genderdomestic violencelawinstitutionsintimacy
spellingShingle Alessandra Gribaldo
L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo
gender
domestic violence
law
institutions
intimacy
title L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
title_full L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
title_fullStr L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
title_full_unstemmed L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
title_short L’intimité, la fiabilité et les paroles des femmes : quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
title_sort l intimite la fiabilite et les paroles des femmes quand les violences conjugales rencontrent les institutions
topic gender
domestic violence
law
institutions
intimacy
url https://journals.openedition.org/aam/2883
work_keys_str_mv AT alessandragribaldo lintimitelafiabiliteetlesparolesdesfemmesquandlesviolencesconjugalesrencontrentlesinstitutions